Spiders! Zombies! Eyeballs! 3 fun and scary Halloween no-bake treats to make with the kids

Wanna know a real treat this Halloween season? Making snacks with the kids can double as pure entertainment, too.

In fact, there are plenty of easy (and often no-bake), creative holiday yumminess that also helps give children confidence in the kitchen and offers a fun way to pass an afternoon stuck inside on a chilly, rainy fall day.

No-bake treats are great for younger kids who can’t man a stove top or oven, impatient kids who want to see the fruits of their kitchen labor right away or exhausted parents who don’t want to have to cook yet another thing this week.

What you’ll need: Pretzel twists (find a huge jug at Walmart for less than $15 and have leftover munchies for school lunches), mini doughnuts and other candy to decorate with, such as frosting, chocolate chips, M&Ms, Skittles or white Mentos.

How to make them: We love these easy-to-follow directions from It’s Always Autumn. Cut or carefully break the curved sides off the pretzel to make arched spider legs. Push the legs into the doughnut. Apply a little frosting as the “glue” and stick M&Ms or other round candy on it for eyes. Get creative and let your kids’ decoration imagination run wild.

What you’ll need: A box of sheer plastic disposable gloves, a bag of small candy of your choice, orange and black ribbon

How to make them: Simply have your kids fill up the disposable gloves with candy and tie them off at the end. Tips: Candy corn in the ends of the fingers looks like yellow fingernails. Or fill the bag with dark or butterscotch chocolate chips, with red Hot Tamales at the fingertips. Experiment with different colored candy and see who can create the creepiest zombie hand.

Monster eyeballs

Provided by 100Directions.com

What you’ll need: A bag of regular Oreo cookies, decorative icing and gel food coloring (the blog 100Directions.com recommends blue and green icing and red gel food coloring, but you can color your eyeballs however you want), dark colored M&Ms, Skittles or any round candy, a small paintbrush (you could also use a toothpick, if you aren’t too particular about details).

How to make them: Have the kids carefully separate the two sides of the Oreo cookies. Squirt some icing in the middle, to look like the iris. Then place an M&M or round candy in the middle, as the pupil. To look extra spooky, add red squiggly “veins” around the iris using red gel painted on with a brush or toothpick. Get creative with the colors you use. A red iris with a purple pupil? A green iris with a yellow pupil? They’re monster eyeballs, so your kids’ imagination is the limit.

Aimee's passion for storytelling has brought her around the world as a journalist, writing award-winning articles about health and economic plights in Haiti and Uganda. She is currently a features writer and columnist for the Boulder Daily Camera, a travel contributor to USA Today 10Best.com, the Colorado travel expert for About.com, a blogger for Huffington Post Weird and a regular contributor to other publications, such as SpaTravelGal.com, Fodor's travel books and more. Reach out to her at AimeeHeckel.com, find her travel board on Pinterest, follow her on Twitter, or ping her on Google+.